WATERVILLE – Baxter State Park has been protected forever as “the people’s park.” But hundreds of thousands of acres of land around the park’s border – most of which are visible from atop Mount Katahdin – could be transformed into clear-cuts or housing developments at any time.

Friends of Baxter State Park on Saturday dedicated its annual meeting to a discussion of park boundary lands. Baxter is fast becoming an island of permanence in the sea of constantly shifting land ownership that is the 21st century north Maine woods.

“The shuffling continues, and it’s ever more important to ensure that the lands around the park are protected,” Charlie Jacobi, the Friends of Baxter president, said Saturday.

Roxanne Quimby, founder of Burt’s Bees and a national park advocate, bought the whole of Township 5, Range 8, which she has named “East Branch Sanctuary,” as well as the northern third of Township 3, Range 7, which she calls “Three Rivers Sanctuary,” from Irving two years ago. Both properties are being managed as nature preserves by Elliotsville Plantation Inc., Quimby’s Portland-based company.

On Saturday, Bart DeWolf, science director for the company, told Friends of Baxter about his plans for the land, which shares a combined 39 miles of boundary with Baxter State Park’s east side and state reserve lands.

“[Our] policies are pretty compatible with Baxter right next door,” DeWolf said, explaining the preserves’ blanket restrictions on hunting, trapping and motorized recreation. Like Baxter, however, Quimby intends to welcome public use of the property for hiking, fishing and camping at state-owned sites along the East Branch of the Penobscot River, he said.

This summer, DeWolf and several researchers plan to complete an assessment of the properties’ plant, wildlife, geological and archaeological features before finalizing the details of formal stewardship plans.

Most of the land has been heavily logged in recent years, but small patches of old-growth forest may remain along riverbanks and steep slopes, he said.

Elliotsville Plantation Inc. has signed an agreement with Woodlot Alternatives Inc. of Topsham to produce a forest management plan, as is required by the state to gain “tree-growth” tax incentives. The property, however, won’t be logged, DeWolf said. Instead, selected trees will be removed to encourage the development of a “natural” old-growth ecosystem.

The property is crisscrossed with dozens of roads and trails, many of which are dead-end skidder paths from old logging operations. A majority of these roads will be closed, becoming overgrown with time. But DeWolf promised that access roads for leased camps and popular recreation sites will be maintained.

Quimby’s company also struck a deal with the Maine Snowmobile Association, allowing the use of Interstate Trail System 85 across the property this winter, with the understanding that it would be rerouted by the start of the 2005-06 snowmobiling season.

Members of Friends of Baxter were thrilled with the plans, which mirror their goals for park boundary land – giving preference to conservation ownership.

“I can’t help but think that 50 years ago, this talk could have been given by someone working for [park founder] Gov. [Percival] Baxter,” Jacobi said.

“I’m so grateful to our neighbor Roxanne Quimby for the effort she’s making on her lands,” park Director Irvin “Buzz” Caverly added.

Members of Friends of Baxter were less pleased with the management of the state-owned Telos reserve, “sandwiched between two wilderness areas” at the northwest corner of the park and the southeast corner of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

Webster Lake straddles the boundary between Baxter and the state lands, and concern has grown about the increased use of floatplanes to gain instant access to an area that Baxter markets as a wilderness, accessible only with a long, challenging hike.

“If we can move the motorized use off Webster Lake, we’ve made the park a little wilder,” Caverly said.

The state’s management plan for the 23,000-acre parcel in Township 6, Range 11 is five years overdue, said Dave Soucy, head of the Department of Conservation’s Bureau of Parks and Lands. The use of floatplanes no doubt will be addressed in the next public planning process, he said, inviting members of Friends of Baxter to participate.

Soucy also verified Saturday that his office is negotiating to purchase at least part of a tract of land in Township 3, Range 8, that contains Katahdin Lake and some of the most famous views of Mount Katahdin. The state made an offer on the 6,098-acre parcel when Irving put it up for sale in 2003, but was outbid by W.T. Gardner & Sons, a Lincoln company known for combining logging with real estate development.

When asked to provide further detail on the status of the negotiations, Soucy responded with a smile and a simple “no.”

For more information on Friends of Baxter, write to P.O. Box 1442, Bangor, Maine, 04402 or visit the Web site at www.friendsofbaxter.org.